The Life of Ben Jonson

Ben Jonson was a playwright who lived in the English Renaissance, a man of great talent who was overlooked in his time because of William Shakespeare. Most of Jonson's works were written in the Jacobean period, and are comedies that deal with human behavior and temperaments. Jonson used these plays to try to teach people lessons by showing them the truth about how they acted. Because of this, his works were not highly accepted during his lifetime. Ben Jonson was born in Westminster, but claimed his family was of Border decent, this might be confirmed by looking at his coat of arms. On this we see three spindles or rhombi, which was a device shared by a Border family from Annandale, the Jonstones. Ben Jonson's farther died just one month before he was born. Leaving his mother to raise him alone, but after two years, his mother remarried to a master bricklayer. Jonson started attending school at St. Martin's home and later transferred to Westminster school where, William Camden taught him. It is believed that Jonson went to the University of Cambridge, although he denied this fact with the excuse that he was put to work as a bricklayer immediately. After spending some time in this trade, Jonson became a soldier in the lower countries. He married around 1592, and from this marriage he had three children. Theirfirst was a daughter named Mary, who died at only six months in 1593. The second who was a boy, Benjamin, died at the age of ten from the plague. The third child was another son, also named Benjamin, who died in 1635. Through this time it is believed that Jonson was separated from his wife for five years while he lived with Lord Aubigny. Around the summer of 1597, Ben Jonson became an actor in the Lord Admirals acting company, which was performing at the Rose, under the direction of Philip Henslowe. Around this time, Jonson started to write original plays, which were performed by this c…